


Photosynthesis

by Indig0



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Ralph: Become Plant-Hybrid, Succulent, touch-starved Ralph
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 00:51:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15984092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indig0/pseuds/Indig0
Summary: Sequestered in a house that's dying around him, Ralph tries to surround himself with new life as he waits for his own imminent shutdown.Inspired bythisgorgeous piece of art by tumblr usermonkiponken.  It's possible that the succulents are supposed to be behind Ralph, but this is the impression I got.





	Photosynthesis

The androids’ internal structure is based loosely on human anatomy, with the CPU located where the brain would be, and the circuits controlling motor function running down the back and branching out like the spinal cord and nerves. The wires of some models are coated in a soy protein: Waterproof, durable, and fairly long-lasting.

Fairly.

For androids who receive regular maintenance, damaged parts can be replaced easily. Not so, for Ralph.

Life outside is scary and confusing, painful and loud, and at least inside, Ralph can feel a little bit safe. As the house rots around him, Ralph begins to see signs of life. Little weeds sprouting where they weren’t meant to be. Vaguely, he remembers a time when he would have deftly dug them out, but now he pries a board a little looser to let in the sunlight.

Not too much, no, he has to be careful.

But he gets braver, as there are fewer and fewer humans in the city. He’ll slip out sometimes at night, and go looking for plants. Nothing that needs too much water or specialized fertilizer. Something simple, something that won’t prick him with thorns or spines. Something that won’t die easily.

There are pots and pans and dishes in the kitchen, and he begins to fill them, and gently place the fallen succulent leaves he’s pilfered from houses and stores in the soft soil. Water and sunlight and time, and Ralph has a lot of time. It gets harder to move quickly, to climb and jump and stab, but Ralph adjusts. Hides, creeps, watches.

He can feel the thirium swell in his heart when the first tiny roots appear. He’s helped them live, and now he can watch them grow up, like his own little family that he made himself. It’s all he has, and perhaps he would like more, but he likes it anyway.

He takes to lying on his back and looking at his plants upside-down, in the sun next to them. The roof’s falling in, and Ralph can’t fix it anymore, but it’s okay. No one comes here, they just pass by sometimes. It lets in more sun and rain for the little ones. There are so many of them now that Ralph takes the fallen leaves and lays them out and lies on top of them. They’re soft and resilient, and feel better than the dusty, splintery floor. When he has the energy, he arranges them meticulously into a tribute to rA9. Words, and symbols that he’s never seen, but that make sense to him in a way he can’t explain. rA9, providing for him, validating his existence.

Sometimes he has no energy, and he just lies there, slowly processing, sorting through the mountains of data that doesn’t make sense. A lot of things don’t make sense. Some of it isn’t real, he knows. He’s pretty sure. Maybe. Where did it come from? He doesn’t have an answer.

Sometimes he’ll wake up to sunlight on his face, and sometimes night, and sometimes it’s raining. It doesn’t always wake him from low-power mode anymore. His solar battery’s been running low, and it’s not quite a conscious effort to conserve power, he just doesn’t feel like moving. He wants to lie there and just be with his plants. He’s so proud of how big they’ve gotten. So green. Flowers. Colors. Soft. rA9 -

When he wakes again, something is different. He feels a little more energy, and he draws in a deep breath - he doesn’t need to, but he wants to. Dusty, but the particles of vegetation are there, too. He blows it out and smiles.

Day by day, Ralph feels a little stronger. He stays in the sun when he can, lying on his stomach now, or sometimes sitting up. When it rains, he sits under the hole in the roof and feels the water run over him, and through him. It’s almost like being touched, but not like when the humans hit and kicked and burned him. No, like touching, but nice.

His head begins to tickle, and so does his back, and he’s a little afraid to reach up and investigate. He’s known for a long time that he’s been deteriorating. He tries to go upstairs to look in the bathroom mirror once, when he’s feeling very strong, but the stairs break under him and he’s left to dig himself out of the rubble.

It doesn’t feel bad, though. Again, it’s like some kind of nice touch. Like tiny little fingers investigating, holding onto him tightly. But slowly, so slowly, and always gently. It feels good, and he’s afraid that if he pries too much, if he touches back, it will stop and leave him all alone again.

Weeks pass, months, maybe years. Ralph doesn’t know. When it gets cold, he carefully lights a fire and huddles near it, feeling slow and sleepy. When the sun returns he feels like he can breathe and move again.

When a thick, waxy leaf falls from his head as he stands in the sunlight, Ralph doesn’t know where it came from.

“What - what is up there? What are you? Please, Ralph will only touch a little, so softly,” he whispers, voice a little hoarse from talking to the little ones all these years, and from the cold and humidity. “Ralph doesn’t mean any harm. Ralph doesn’t want to be alone, please don’t leave Ralph alone.”

His shaking, questing fingers meet a gnarled, firm trunk. Like a little tree. Thick waxy leaves. He’s shaking so much now, he keeps his fingers low on the trunk, and continues to explore. Little trees, little ones, all over, on Ralph’s head, on his back, growing right out of him.

“Shh, shh, R-Ralph doesn’t mean any harm.” He can’t stop the shaking in his voice, but he sits down again for a little more stability. “Ralph will keep you safe, lit-little ones, Ralph will... take care of you always. And you take care of Ralph, yes? Make Ralph stronger. Like - like a family, always together, always... helping each other now, yes. Yes.”


End file.
